2
00:00:19,686 --> 00:00:22,771
(narrator) For the wartime
newsreel cameras,

3
00:00:22,856 --> 00:00:24,690
the dancers wore gas masks.

4
00:00:24,774 --> 00:00:29,528
But the Germans never used gas
against British civilians.

5
00:00:30,697 --> 00:00:35,367
Hitler's weapon
against British civilians was bombs.

6
00:00:35,452 --> 00:00:39,997
Over two million homes
were damaged, blasted, gutted.

7
00:00:40,081 --> 00:00:44,918
And beginning with London,
whole cities were hammered.

8
00:00:45,003 --> 00:00:47,588
Fire and high explosives

9
00:00:47,714 --> 00:00:52,259
probed and tested the strength
of the British way of life.

10
00:01:51,319 --> 00:01:53,362
(air-raid siren)

11
00:02:02,622 --> 00:02:07,709
ln November 1940, the Germans
shiffed their attack from London.

12
00:02:07,794 --> 00:02:12,464
The first provincial city they hit hard
was Coventry.

13
00:02:15,969 --> 00:02:18,053
(♪ church organ)

14
00:02:23,518 --> 00:02:28,313
The heart was torn out of the cathedral,
out of the city.

15
00:02:33,611 --> 00:02:35,362
People were bewildered,

16
00:02:35,446 --> 00:02:39,533
and their leaders were bewildered, too,
by the huge fires.

17
00:02:43,037 --> 00:02:46,582
(man) On paper, Birmingham, Nuneaton,

18
00:02:46,666 --> 00:02:50,169
Rugby, should've come
to the aid of Coventry,

19
00:02:50,253 --> 00:02:52,713
which they did, in fact.

20
00:02:52,797 --> 00:02:54,923
But on arrival here, they found

21
00:02:55,008 --> 00:02:59,011
that the couplings
on the fire engines were dissimilar,

22
00:02:59,095 --> 00:03:01,930
didn't marry up,
and it meant, therefore,

23
00:03:02,015 --> 00:03:05,684
that cooperation broke down completely.

24
00:03:05,768 --> 00:03:11,273
Of course, in addition to that,
you've got 360 fractures on the gas main

25
00:03:11,357 --> 00:03:14,610
and all the other serVices went.

26
00:03:14,694 --> 00:03:17,529
All the water supplies
were disconnected.

27
00:03:17,614 --> 00:03:23,702
lf the firemen wanted to find sources,
they simply were not there.

28
00:03:24,746 --> 00:03:29,416
(narrator) The king visited Coventry.
With him, the Home Secretary.

29
00:03:29,500 --> 00:03:31,877
(Hodgkinson) Herbert Morrison came in.

30
00:03:31,961 --> 00:03:35,005
The military folk
wanted to establish martial law.

31
00:03:35,089 --> 00:03:38,759
We had a stand-up fight on this.

32
00:03:38,843 --> 00:03:45,557
Alderman Bill Halliwell and myself said,
"No, this must be a civic exercise."

33
00:03:45,642 --> 00:03:51,647
The pressure was taken off
and virtually he and l,

34
00:03:51,731 --> 00:03:57,194
plus the regional officers,
conducted operations from then on.

35
00:03:57,278 --> 00:04:00,864
There were virtually
seven weeks of dictatorship.

36
00:04:02,242 --> 00:04:06,662
You see, there was nothing
in the textbooks of civilian defence

37
00:04:06,746 --> 00:04:09,539
to indicate to local authorities

38
00:04:09,624 --> 00:04:14,002
how to behave in an emergency,
calamity situation,

39
00:04:14,087 --> 00:04:19,174
such as we found
on the morning of November 15th.

40
00:04:19,259 --> 00:04:22,344
(narrator)
While Morrison strove to correct this

41
00:04:22,428 --> 00:04:25,722
by creating Britain's
first national fire serVice,

42
00:04:25,807 --> 00:04:29,101
volunteers shored up
the crumbling home front.

43
00:04:29,185 --> 00:04:31,645
Fresh evacuation
hurried the children away,

44
00:04:31,729 --> 00:04:34,439
as city affer city
passed through crisis.

45
00:04:36,985 --> 00:04:39,278
Portsmouth, Southampton,

46
00:04:39,362 --> 00:04:43,115
Sheffield, Bristol, Glasgow.

47
00:04:43,199 --> 00:04:45,909
Then Plymouth became the worst-hit city

48
00:04:45,994 --> 00:04:49,788
with seven big raids
in March and April 1941 .

49
00:04:49,872 --> 00:04:52,207
A quarter of its people,
50,000 trekkers,

50
00:04:52,292 --> 00:04:54,960
fled the city at night
and slept out in the hills.

51
00:04:55,044 --> 00:04:58,672
This film was not shown
in wartime Britain.

52
00:04:59,716 --> 00:05:03,385
The censored press
could only hint at chaos.

53
00:05:03,469 --> 00:05:08,557
30,000 people lost their homes
and many lost much more.

54
00:05:10,685 --> 00:05:12,728
(alarm)

55
00:05:12,812 --> 00:05:17,983
And when the sirens went, it was
somewhere around nine o'clock, l think,

56
00:05:18,067 --> 00:05:21,653
l called my mother
and she came down the stairs.

57
00:05:21,738 --> 00:05:25,449
She said, "l'll take Raymond."
l said, "All right, l'll take Sheila."

58
00:05:25,533 --> 00:05:28,702
And we called Mrs Todd,
that was the lady upstairs,

59
00:05:28,786 --> 00:05:31,413
and she came down
with her three children.

60
00:05:31,497 --> 00:05:35,667
And we went in our respective cupboards,

61
00:05:35,752 --> 00:05:40,422
and l sat on a little tiny chair,
l put Raymond at my side,

62
00:05:40,506 --> 00:05:43,592
and l held Sheila in my arms.

63
00:05:45,219 --> 00:05:48,638
And affer that, l didn't know anything.

64
00:05:49,807 --> 00:05:54,227
l must've come to in the cupboard,
because l heard my father say:

65
00:05:54,312 --> 00:05:57,856
"Oh, l'm afraid your mother's had it."

66
00:05:57,940 --> 00:06:04,404
And then l said, "Oh,
Sheila's all right. She's in my arms."

67
00:06:04,489 --> 00:06:10,702
And l went to touch my other child
and l couldn't feel him.

68
00:06:10,787 --> 00:06:15,749
And l must've lost consciousness again
because l was buried, l believe.

69
00:06:17,668 --> 00:06:23,507
Later, l learned that my mother was dead
and the two children were.

70
00:06:23,633 --> 00:06:28,178
And Mrs Todd was killed,
and her two children.

71
00:06:28,262 --> 00:06:30,847
She was expecting a baby any hour.

72
00:06:30,932 --> 00:06:33,141
(narrator)
Mrs Bunt's husband, a sailor,

73
00:06:33,226 --> 00:06:35,185
came home on leave the next morning.

74
00:06:35,269 --> 00:06:39,564
(man) There was her mother
laying on the bed in the front room.

75
00:06:39,649 --> 00:06:43,235
We went across the road
to her brother's place.

76
00:06:43,319 --> 00:06:47,322
He told me about the two children.

77
00:06:47,407 --> 00:06:51,660
l went up, there they were... cold.

78
00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:53,829
Not a blemish on them.

79
00:06:57,041 --> 00:06:59,459
That's when l lost my temper.

80
00:06:59,544 --> 00:07:03,130
l said,
"lnstead of us dropping bloody paper,

81
00:07:03,214 --> 00:07:06,341
we ought to be hitting them
the same as they're hitting us."

82
00:07:06,467 --> 00:07:10,011
Mr Magee, affer all this,
what do you think about us

83
00:07:10,096 --> 00:07:13,181
going over to Berlin and doing the same?

84
00:07:13,266 --> 00:07:14,599
l should think so, too.

85
00:07:14,684 --> 00:07:18,145
Bit worse than this, l hope,
with a wicked bugger like he is.

86
00:07:18,229 --> 00:07:21,356
l definitely do, sir.
Bomb them tenfold.

87
00:07:21,441 --> 00:07:23,984
l'm sorry
for the women and children of Berlin,

88
00:07:24,068 --> 00:07:26,361
but what about
the people of this country?

89
00:07:26,446 --> 00:07:28,530
(cheering)

90
00:07:30,867 --> 00:07:36,580
(narrator) This is what the authorised
newsreels did show of Plymouth.

91
00:07:36,664 --> 00:07:40,959
Churchill's voice and presence
did sustain morale.

92
00:07:41,085 --> 00:07:44,421
And in cabinet,
he knew how to get his way.

93
00:07:46,424 --> 00:07:49,843
And if Henry V said,
"Now, gentlemen,

94
00:07:49,927 --> 00:07:56,099
l've been into all this thing and the
Channel is very tricky at the moment."

95
00:07:56,184 --> 00:08:02,522
"We can't get the reinforcements,
the rate of sickness can't be replaced."

96
00:08:02,607 --> 00:08:09,571
"The bridgehead, according to Hamley's
infantry tactics, is too small."

97
00:08:09,655 --> 00:08:14,117
"And, in short, l feel there's
nothing else but to launch an attack."

98
00:08:14,202 --> 00:08:16,077
But he didn't say that.

99
00:08:16,162 --> 00:08:20,457
He said, "Once more
unto the breach, dear friends."

100
00:08:20,541 --> 00:08:23,793
Winston had that extraordinary power.

101
00:08:23,878 --> 00:08:26,796
(narrator) Churchill's speeches
rang less true now.

102
00:08:26,923 --> 00:08:28,298
Almost worse than bombing,

103
00:08:28,382 --> 00:08:31,384
U-boat attacks on shipping
cut Britain's food supplies.

104
00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:35,305
The Germans
were on the rampage everywhere.

105
00:08:36,682 --> 00:08:43,230
(Churchill) We cannot tell what
the course of this fell war will be,

106
00:08:43,314 --> 00:08:48,235
as it spreads, remorseless,
through ever-wider regions.

107
00:08:48,319 --> 00:08:52,155
We know it will be hard.
We expect it will be long,

108
00:08:53,157 --> 00:08:59,120
We cannot yet see how deliverance
will come or when it will come,

109
00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:05,627
but nothing is more certain than
that every trace of Hitler's footsteps,

110
00:09:05,711 --> 00:09:11,258
every stain
of his infected and corroding fingers,

111
00:09:11,342 --> 00:09:14,177
will be sponged and purged

112
00:09:14,262 --> 00:09:19,182
and, if need be,
blasted from the surface of the earth.

113
00:09:19,267 --> 00:09:23,937
He may spread his course far and wide

114
00:09:24,021 --> 00:09:27,065
and carry his curse with him.

115
00:09:27,149 --> 00:09:32,028
He may break into Africa or into Asia.

116
00:09:32,113 --> 00:09:37,784
But it is with us,
here in this island fortress,

117
00:09:37,868 --> 00:09:43,331
that he will have to reckon
and settle in the end.

118
00:09:46,335 --> 00:09:48,878
♪ Now behold in me an LDV

119
00:09:48,963 --> 00:09:50,922
♪ For battle l'm just yearning

120
00:09:51,007 --> 00:09:53,425
♪ Doing my best like all the rest

121
00:09:53,509 --> 00:09:55,635
♪ To keep the home fires burning

122
00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,179
♪ Each evening stiff and starched

123
00:09:58,264 --> 00:10:00,098
♪ Up and down the street l march

124
00:10:00,182 --> 00:10:02,767
♪ l'm guarding
the home of the Home Guard

125
00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:05,061
♪ Guarding the Home Guard's home

126
00:10:05,146 --> 00:10:07,355
♪ All day long, steady and strong

127
00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:09,608
♪ Doing what l'm told
and l can't go wrong

128
00:10:09,734 --> 00:10:13,778
♪ All the ladies are fond of me
but last night one of them gave a shout

129
00:10:13,863 --> 00:10:16,114
♪ When she saw me
pulling my bayonet out

130
00:10:16,198 --> 00:10:18,575
♪ While guarding the Home Guard's home

131
00:10:20,328 --> 00:10:23,496
(narrator) The Home Guard
had been founded a year before.

132
00:10:23,581 --> 00:10:26,791
On exercises,
its members played at fighting.

133
00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:31,963
You are a new corps,
a corps with its traditions to make.

134
00:10:32,048 --> 00:10:38,470
But you have already got your motto,
and your motto is: "Kill the Boche!"

135
00:10:38,554 --> 00:10:42,182
ln the course of your duty,

136
00:10:42,308 --> 00:10:46,895
you may have the luck
to come in contact with the enemy.

137
00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:49,147
lf you do, one of your duties

138
00:10:49,231 --> 00:10:52,984
is to shoot when you see a sitter,
and shoot to kill.

139
00:10:54,612 --> 00:10:57,030
(narrator)
The British still lived in fear,

140
00:10:57,114 --> 00:11:02,202
not just of invasion,
but of the foe at home -

141
00:11:02,286 --> 00:11:04,454
fear of listening spies.

142
00:11:09,168 --> 00:11:11,795
And fear of enemy aliens.

143
00:11:13,255 --> 00:11:17,842
ln the summer of 1940, the press
had screamed, "lntern the lot."

144
00:11:17,968 --> 00:11:20,595
And almost all of them -
Germans, Austrians,

145
00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:22,764
refugee Jews, leff-wing exiles -

146
00:11:22,848 --> 00:11:28,520
had passed through verminous
transit camps, interned without trial.

147
00:11:28,604 --> 00:11:31,272
l was interned just like that, you know?

148
00:11:31,357 --> 00:11:37,445
Fetched by the police
without knowing anything beforehand.

149
00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:39,948
Two policemen came and fetched me.

150
00:11:41,367 --> 00:11:43,702
(narrator)
Although they did not know it,

151
00:11:43,786 --> 00:11:46,579
they were bound for Liverpool,
for embarkation.

152
00:11:46,664 --> 00:11:50,917
People standing lining the streets,
you know?

153
00:11:51,001 --> 00:11:58,133
Throwing stones at you, spitting at you,
shouting "spies", you know?

154
00:11:58,217 --> 00:12:01,094
And that was horrible.

155
00:12:02,138 --> 00:12:07,142
Everyone thought it will be a
concentration camp like it is in Austria

156
00:12:07,226 --> 00:12:10,311
or in Germany.

157
00:12:10,396 --> 00:12:14,023
And we were brought on that boat.

158
00:12:14,108 --> 00:12:17,235
Several of them
wanted to jump into the water

159
00:12:17,319 --> 00:12:22,031
because they didn't know
what is in front of them.

160
00:12:22,158 --> 00:12:24,701
When we arrived on the lsle of Man,

161
00:12:24,785 --> 00:12:27,996
we had pictures taken
with our number on.

162
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,709
So we had already the feeling,
"Well, we are criminals."

163
00:12:32,793 --> 00:12:37,756
But from that moment on,
it was much, much better.

164
00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:42,135
We had quite nice people
to look affer us,

165
00:12:42,219 --> 00:12:45,013
and we had more security.

166
00:12:45,097 --> 00:12:50,059
We had so much security
that we were fenced in, even.

167
00:12:50,144 --> 00:12:53,730
(narrator) Aliens had the right
of appeal to tribunals,

168
00:12:53,814 --> 00:12:56,149
and by 1941 many were free.

169
00:12:56,233 --> 00:12:59,235
But a new threat to civil liberty
had loomed:

170
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:01,863
Regulation 2D.

171
00:13:04,325 --> 00:13:06,868
Because Stalin
was in alliance with Hitler,

172
00:13:06,952 --> 00:13:10,497
the British Communist Party
opposed the war effort.

173
00:13:10,581 --> 00:13:15,293
Under 2D, its paper,
the Daily Worker, had been banned.

174
00:13:15,377 --> 00:13:17,962
Five months later
when Hitler struck at Russia,

175
00:13:18,088 --> 00:13:21,883
Churchill himself
seized the chance to be Stalin's ally.

176
00:13:21,967 --> 00:13:23,426
Germany's new thrust east

177
00:13:23,511 --> 00:13:26,262
took the pressure
off Churchill's battered island.

178
00:13:26,347 --> 00:13:31,935
There was time now to perfect
the new and truly total war economy.

179
00:13:33,646 --> 00:13:36,272
But at its head,
in the coalition government,

180
00:13:36,357 --> 00:13:37,857
were two jealous rivals -

181
00:13:37,942 --> 00:13:40,693
big men brought in
from outside Parliament.

182
00:13:40,778 --> 00:13:45,156
Max Beaverbrook, the newspaper baron,
now Minister of Supply,

183
00:13:45,241 --> 00:13:48,117
and Ernest Bevin,
the strong man of the TUC.

184
00:13:50,746 --> 00:13:53,957
For Bevin,
the industrial workers were his people.

185
00:13:54,834 --> 00:13:59,212
Well, mates, ever since we took office,

186
00:13:59,296 --> 00:14:02,924
we have been exhorting you
to work harder.

187
00:14:03,008 --> 00:14:08,137
l've never done so much exhortation
to work hard in my life.

188
00:14:08,222 --> 00:14:11,599
But we've got to do it
to win this victory.

189
00:14:12,434 --> 00:14:17,856
We'll all go along together
with a mighty effort,

190
00:14:17,940 --> 00:14:21,150
and show to the Hitlers and Mussolinis

191
00:14:21,277 --> 00:14:24,362
that we do not only work and fight,

192
00:14:24,446 --> 00:14:27,407
but we can be cheerful
in doing it as well.

193
00:14:27,491 --> 00:14:29,576
(cheering)

194
00:14:34,957 --> 00:14:38,877
(Chandos) Ernie Bevin, you see,
is an Englishman to the fingertips,

195
00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:42,088
and with a great hold
over the trade unions

196
00:14:42,172 --> 00:14:44,799
and the labour movement as a whole.

197
00:14:44,884 --> 00:14:49,053
l think he's the most conceited man
that l've ever known.

198
00:14:49,138 --> 00:14:52,390
lt happens to self-made men very offen.

199
00:14:52,474 --> 00:14:54,517
But the great thing about Ernie

200
00:14:54,602 --> 00:14:57,312
is that he never
went back on what he said.

201
00:14:57,396 --> 00:15:01,149
He'd say to me,
"Well, l said it, didn't l?"

202
00:15:01,233 --> 00:15:05,320
That is a tremendous thing.
He was very loyal in those ways.

203
00:15:05,404 --> 00:15:07,280
A very likeable man.

204
00:15:07,364 --> 00:15:10,742
And one day, we were fighting for,
a rather technical point,

205
00:15:10,826 --> 00:15:13,620
the extraction of wheat in the loaf.

206
00:15:13,704 --> 00:15:17,582
And they were trying to get it
up to 88% extraction.

207
00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:22,587
And Ernie suddenly said
in the committee, he said:

208
00:15:22,671 --> 00:15:25,381
"l say the middle of this loaf
is indigestible."

209
00:15:25,466 --> 00:15:28,426
"l can't eat it.
(niccups) What did l tell you?"

210
00:15:28,510 --> 00:15:31,763
Churchill grew in admiration

211
00:15:31,847 --> 00:15:35,850
of the great fundamental qualities
of Bevin -

212
00:15:35,935 --> 00:15:37,894
his single-purposeness

213
00:15:37,978 --> 00:15:44,150
and the obvious desire,
determination, on the part of Bevin,

214
00:15:44,234 --> 00:15:48,696
to suppress
all party-political considerations.

215
00:15:48,822 --> 00:15:51,032
lmagine the power he had.

216
00:15:51,116 --> 00:15:56,996
He was in charge
of the possibilities of serVice

217
00:15:57,081 --> 00:16:01,042
for everybody
in the civilian life of this country.

218
00:16:02,127 --> 00:16:06,756
(narrator) He had total powers over
every man working, and over every woman.

219
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:12,220
From March 1941 , Bevin began
to direct women into vital work,

220
00:16:12,304 --> 00:16:17,141
and into vital work the pretty girls
went, but not enough of them.

221
00:16:17,226 --> 00:16:21,145
So in December, Britain went further
than any fighting land had ever done

222
00:16:21,230 --> 00:16:23,523
and further than
the Germans could ever go.

223
00:16:23,607 --> 00:16:27,026
Conscription of women was announced.

224
00:16:27,111 --> 00:16:31,239
Girls called up could choose between
the women's serVices

225
00:16:31,323 --> 00:16:34,701
or war work in the fields or factories.

226
00:16:37,413 --> 00:16:39,372
(radio) "Music While You Work"

227
00:16:39,456 --> 00:16:43,459
will be played to you this morning
on Rhythmic Records.

228
00:16:43,544 --> 00:16:46,212
(sings along)

229
00:16:46,296 --> 00:16:48,965
(♪ "Yes, My Darling Daughter)

230
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,943
- You'll be leaving us shortly?
- Yes, l think l will.

231
00:17:09,028 --> 00:17:11,195
l think l'll give the Land Army a try.

232
00:17:11,321 --> 00:17:15,700
- Do you think you'll like that?
- Yes. The life rather appeals to me.

233
00:17:15,784 --> 00:17:18,911
l don't think any of us
want to starVe, though.

234
00:17:18,996 --> 00:17:24,125
What will l do about my hair? l can't
possibly come down to the country.

235
00:17:24,209 --> 00:17:28,504
Oh, well then, madam, l suggest
you wear it straight, like Hitler's.

236
00:17:28,630 --> 00:17:31,090
l'd like to help to build Spitfires.

237
00:17:31,175 --> 00:17:36,012
My boy's in the RAF, well,
and l feel l'm helping him.

238
00:17:36,096 --> 00:17:39,265
The sooner we all pull together,
the sooner it'll be over.

239
00:17:39,349 --> 00:17:42,852
l would like to go in the serVices
because the uniform appeals.

240
00:17:42,936 --> 00:17:45,021
(♪ "Fall In")

241
00:17:49,526 --> 00:17:53,029
(woman) Changing step
at the march in quick time.

242
00:17:53,113 --> 00:17:57,658
Change step!

243
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:02,413
Move to the right in threes.
About... turn!

244
00:18:05,417 --> 00:18:07,293
Slow...

245
00:18:07,377 --> 00:18:08,711
march!

246
00:18:08,796 --> 00:18:11,339
About...

247
00:18:11,882 --> 00:18:13,966
turn!

248
00:18:16,178 --> 00:18:18,846
(narrator) Bevin's concern
was long-term efficiency,

249
00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:22,308
but Beaverbrook revelled
in short-term frenzies.

250
00:18:22,392 --> 00:18:24,435
Now he was calling for tanks.

251
00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:27,188
We want tanks.

252
00:18:27,272 --> 00:18:30,066
We want very many tanks.

253
00:18:30,150 --> 00:18:34,779
We want them
for the defence of our island

254
00:18:34,863 --> 00:18:38,991
and also for offensive operations.

255
00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:43,079
(narrator) Beaverbrook's methods
outraged his colleagues.

256
00:18:43,163 --> 00:18:44,997
Even his loyal friend Churchill

257
00:18:45,082 --> 00:18:47,875
was troubled by his moods,
his resignations,

258
00:18:48,001 --> 00:18:51,212
and his quarrels with Bevin.

259
00:18:51,296 --> 00:18:56,092
(Chandos) Max Beaverbrook
did a very good crash job.

260
00:18:56,677 --> 00:18:59,720
But in my opinion, and l am biased,

261
00:18:59,805 --> 00:19:06,018
he leff behind an enormous quantity
of wreckage - administrative wreckage.

262
00:19:06,937 --> 00:19:12,483
And he said,
"War is a matter of improvisation."

263
00:19:12,568 --> 00:19:15,736
"Organisation
is the enemy of improvisation."

264
00:19:16,822 --> 00:19:18,948
(man) Ernie Bevin...

265
00:19:19,032 --> 00:19:21,242
domineering, dogmatic,

266
00:19:21,326 --> 00:19:23,786
even tyrannical, could be ruthless.

267
00:19:23,871 --> 00:19:27,832
"Don't stand in my way.
Don't criticise me."

268
00:19:27,916 --> 00:19:32,044
"l will tolerate no interrogation
from any source."

269
00:19:32,838 --> 00:19:35,965
Beaverbrook the same. The same.

270
00:19:36,049 --> 00:19:41,596
Two strong personalities,
domineering and ruthless.

271
00:19:42,514 --> 00:19:44,015
(narrator) Early in 1942,

272
00:19:44,099 --> 00:19:47,226
Beaverbrook flounced out
affer two weeks in a new job -

273
00:19:47,311 --> 00:19:50,771
boss of war industry,
Minister of Production.

274
00:19:51,815 --> 00:19:55,860
For convincing reasons,
Bevin had finally won.

275
00:19:55,944 --> 00:20:01,824
Well, l think he won because Churchill
had the sense, the common sense,

276
00:20:01,909 --> 00:20:07,288
to realise it was good to have
the trade union movement on his side.

277
00:20:07,414 --> 00:20:10,541
He didn't throw Beaverbrook overboard.

278
00:20:10,626 --> 00:20:15,129
Don't forget, Beaverbrook
was out and in, and out and in.

279
00:20:15,214 --> 00:20:19,091
(narrator) And finally out.
This time he stayed out.

280
00:20:19,176 --> 00:20:21,427
A visit to Russia,
where he'd been welcomed

281
00:20:21,511 --> 00:20:24,013
by Britain's ambassador,
Sir Stafford Cripps,

282
00:20:24,097 --> 00:20:29,810
had convinced him that the delightful
Stalin was a great man.

283
00:20:29,895 --> 00:20:33,105
Russia had been pressing
a reluctant British government

284
00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:35,107
to start a second front in Europe.

285
00:20:35,192 --> 00:20:39,278
Out of office, Beaverbrook flung himself
into a campaign for the second front,

286
00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:43,950
building on Britain's almost
mystical admiration for the Red Army.

287
00:20:44,076 --> 00:20:48,412
We believe in the skill
of the Russian generals.

288
00:20:48,497 --> 00:20:52,583
We believe in the equipment
of the Russian divisions.

289
00:20:52,668 --> 00:20:58,464
And we believe in the fighting power
and the courage of the Russian soldiers.

290
00:21:01,218 --> 00:21:06,264
And this is the day
to proclaim our faith!

291
00:21:06,348 --> 00:21:08,683
(cheering)

292
00:21:09,226 --> 00:21:11,602
Weapons we must give,

293
00:21:11,687 --> 00:21:14,647
and raw materials.

294
00:21:14,731 --> 00:21:16,816
Bread we must give,

295
00:21:16,900 --> 00:21:19,694
and sugar, too.

296
00:21:19,778 --> 00:21:22,780
Men we must give,

297
00:21:22,864 --> 00:21:26,826
equipped with tanks and with airplanes.

298
00:21:28,912 --> 00:21:32,290
That is a pledge of the second front.

299
00:21:32,374 --> 00:21:35,167
(cheering)

300
00:21:35,252 --> 00:21:37,920
(narrator)
Also cheering Beaverbrook on,

301
00:21:38,005 --> 00:21:40,965
Britain's Communist Party
now backed the war.

302
00:21:41,091 --> 00:21:43,342
Their leaders
were calling on the workers

303
00:21:43,427 --> 00:21:45,845
to make their war production
mightier yet.

304
00:21:45,929 --> 00:21:51,142
No one calls for the second front
without being personally prepared

305
00:21:51,268 --> 00:21:57,231
to place their being, their energy,
and every ounce of fight they possess

306
00:21:57,357 --> 00:22:00,109
at the disposal of the government.

307
00:22:00,193 --> 00:22:03,779
There is a full understanding
of what is meant,

308
00:22:03,864 --> 00:22:06,282
and the people of this country

309
00:22:06,366 --> 00:22:11,245
are quite rightly beginning to resent
this war on the cheap,

310
00:22:11,330 --> 00:22:14,165
this one-way war that's going on,

311
00:22:14,249 --> 00:22:16,876
where it's the Russians
that do the dying

312
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,295
and the fighting and the sacrifice,

313
00:22:19,379 --> 00:22:21,213
while we pay tribute to them

314
00:22:21,298 --> 00:22:24,050
from the benches
of the House of Commons.

315
00:22:24,134 --> 00:22:26,510
(applause)

316
00:22:26,595 --> 00:22:29,889
(narrator) But one leff-winger
on those benches, Cripps,

317
00:22:30,015 --> 00:22:32,808
had just returned
from his stint in Moscow.

318
00:22:32,893 --> 00:22:36,645
Many people saw him
as a possible rival for Churchill.

319
00:22:36,730 --> 00:22:39,857
His views on Russia had vast appeal.

320
00:22:41,276 --> 00:22:46,364
(Cripps) We've got to try and help
the Russians in every way that we can

321
00:22:46,448 --> 00:22:50,868
to make ready,
to meet the spring offensive of Hitler.

322
00:22:50,952 --> 00:22:53,996
l appreciate there are
some people in this country

323
00:22:54,081 --> 00:22:58,584
who are still afraid
of the spread of the Russian ideology.

324
00:22:58,668 --> 00:23:03,672
But what they've got to recollect
is that if we are friendly with Russia

325
00:23:03,757 --> 00:23:06,675
and have an arrangement
of cooperation with them,

326
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,763
any dangers which they fear
will be very much less.

327
00:23:10,847 --> 00:23:16,977
As a matter of fact, the Soviet Union
have no idea and no wish

328
00:23:17,062 --> 00:23:21,649
to interfere with the internal affairs
of any other country.

329
00:23:21,733 --> 00:23:24,902
l know that
from the lips of Stalin himself.

330
00:23:34,454 --> 00:23:38,999
(narrator) Again, in the headlines,
disaster was stacked on defeat.

331
00:23:39,084 --> 00:23:40,543
The press was critical,

332
00:23:40,627 --> 00:23:45,131
especially the Daily Mirror's
scalding campaign against profiteers.

333
00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:47,716
One cartoon was too much for Churchill:

334
00:23:47,801 --> 00:23:53,472
"The price of petrol has been increased
by one penny - Official".

335
00:23:56,268 --> 00:23:58,602
Churchill told Morrison
to stop the paper,

336
00:23:58,687 --> 00:24:01,230
but the press
rallied to the Mirror's support,

337
00:24:01,314 --> 00:24:07,361
led by the young editor of Beaverbrook's
Evening Standard, MichaeI Foot.

338
00:24:07,446 --> 00:24:10,281
The liberty of press in this country

339
00:24:10,365 --> 00:24:14,618
can only be maintained
by the vigilance of the people,

340
00:24:14,703 --> 00:24:18,747
the vigilance of Parliament, and the
courage of the newspapers themselves.

341
00:24:18,874 --> 00:24:25,629
That's the only way. Therefore, we must
fight, fight to retain those liberties.

342
00:24:25,714 --> 00:24:30,426
The ministers come along and tell us,
they've told us in the last few weeks,

343
00:24:30,510 --> 00:24:33,762
it's only the Daily Mirror
they were trying to get at.

344
00:24:33,847 --> 00:24:37,016
"The attack is over," they say.

345
00:24:37,100 --> 00:24:39,768
"No more demands
on any other newspapers."

346
00:24:39,853 --> 00:24:44,190
"All other newspapers
may continue to live in tranquillity

347
00:24:44,274 --> 00:24:47,443
and in freedom and in peace."

348
00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:51,614
There's something rather familiar
about those words.

349
00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:55,951
- l have no more territorial demands.
- (laughter)

350
00:24:57,370 --> 00:25:00,873
l can picture in my mind's eye now

351
00:25:00,957 --> 00:25:05,586
Mr Morrison himself
muttering those words.

352
00:25:05,712 --> 00:25:09,340
"l have no more territorial demands."

353
00:25:09,424 --> 00:25:16,305
Coming down Shoe Lane with a firm look
on his jaw and a hot gun in his pocket,

354
00:25:16,389 --> 00:25:19,433
with the Evening Standard
safely suppressed under 2D,

355
00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:24,104
and its proprietors
safely looked affer under 18B.

356
00:25:24,189 --> 00:25:27,983
The only man who thought it was
going to be shut down was Churchill.

357
00:25:28,109 --> 00:25:30,528
When it was brought up in the Commons,

358
00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:35,115
the House of Commons came out
on the side of the Mirror, more or less.

359
00:25:35,242 --> 00:25:40,371
They didn't like the Mirror, but they
weren't going to have it suppressed.

360
00:25:40,455 --> 00:25:43,541
And affer that,
we trimmed ourselves a bit

361
00:25:43,625 --> 00:25:46,752
and the government
forgot their foolishness.

362
00:25:46,836 --> 00:25:52,091
(narrator) Since democratic life did
go on, there were still by-elections.

363
00:25:52,175 --> 00:25:56,178
The coalition government
lost a string of them to independents.

364
00:25:56,263 --> 00:26:00,057
Tom Driberg stood at Maldon
as an independent Socialist.

365
00:26:00,141 --> 00:26:03,477
Maldon was a very safe Tory seat.

366
00:26:03,562 --> 00:26:06,730
(man) l hadn't the faintest idea
how to be a candidate.

367
00:26:06,856 --> 00:26:12,611
l didn't belong to any party, l didn't
know the electoral law or anything.

368
00:26:12,696 --> 00:26:16,323
First l went to see my employer,
Lord Beaverbrook,

369
00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:21,078
whom l was working for at the time
on the Daily Express.

370
00:26:21,162 --> 00:26:24,039
And he was a bit sceptical.

371
00:26:24,165 --> 00:26:28,919
He said the only advice he would give me
was that l must wear a hat.

372
00:26:29,004 --> 00:26:30,629
He said, "The British people

373
00:26:30,714 --> 00:26:33,340
will never vote for a man
who doesn't wear a hat."

374
00:26:33,425 --> 00:26:37,720
(narrator) Then in June
came a fresh shock from Africa.

375
00:26:37,804 --> 00:26:40,556
(Driberg) Tobruk fell
about three or four days

376
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,517
before polling day in the election.

377
00:26:43,602 --> 00:26:47,980
We rushed out a leaflet
headed "Tragedy at Tobruk".

378
00:26:48,064 --> 00:26:50,983
And it was a tragedy,
and we felt it as such,

379
00:26:51,067 --> 00:26:53,819
but, nonetheless,
l'm bound to admit that

380
00:26:53,903 --> 00:26:59,283
that did probably greatly add
to the number of votes which we got.

381
00:26:59,367 --> 00:27:02,119
(narrator)
Driberg won by a huge majority.

382
00:27:02,203 --> 00:27:07,708
Meanwhile, the rebel MPs of all parties
wanted a showdown with Churchill.

383
00:27:08,752 --> 00:27:12,546
(man) And when Tobruk fell in 1942,

384
00:27:12,631 --> 00:27:16,383
Churchill was in Washington.

385
00:27:16,468 --> 00:27:20,554
The American press
carried alarmist reports

386
00:27:20,639 --> 00:27:24,016
of the state of the government at home

387
00:27:24,142 --> 00:27:27,061
and the possible votes of censure,
and so on.

388
00:27:27,145 --> 00:27:29,813
So much so, that Winston rang me up.

389
00:27:29,898 --> 00:27:34,526
lt was about 5am our time,
l suppose about midnight his time,

390
00:27:34,611 --> 00:27:38,864
to ask what was happening -

391
00:27:38,948 --> 00:27:42,785
was the government still in office
and what was going on, and so forth.

392
00:27:42,869 --> 00:27:45,663
And l was able to tell him,
so far as l knew,

393
00:27:45,747 --> 00:27:50,084
nothing had happened expect this motion
had been tabled that he'd have to take.

394
00:27:50,168 --> 00:27:52,252
(narrator) Churchill came back

395
00:27:52,337 --> 00:27:56,590
to a motion expressing no confidence
in his leadership.

396
00:27:56,675 --> 00:28:01,261
lt even seemed to the rebels
that they might win, but they muffed it.

397
00:28:02,472 --> 00:28:06,475
As so offen with these
great parliamentary debates,

398
00:28:06,559 --> 00:28:10,604
there's a bit of an anticlimax
when you get there.

399
00:28:10,689 --> 00:28:16,944
And in this case, the anticlimax
came instantly in the opening speech

400
00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:21,156
by this ineffable old Tory,
Sir John Wardlaw-Milne,

401
00:28:21,282 --> 00:28:24,618
because he made
this fantastic suggestion

402
00:28:24,703 --> 00:28:27,079
that there should be
a supreme commander

403
00:28:27,163 --> 00:28:29,498
of all the armed forces
who should be...

404
00:28:29,582 --> 00:28:35,546
And he named him none other than the
Duke of Gloucester, whom God preserVe.

405
00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:42,219
But there was a roar of laughter
and a howl of disappointment.

406
00:28:42,303 --> 00:28:46,807
(narrator) And in gales of derision,
the motion was swept away.

407
00:28:46,891 --> 00:28:50,102
There were only 25 votes
against Churchill.

408
00:28:51,187 --> 00:28:54,940
And now the war news
began to grow brighter.

409
00:28:55,024 --> 00:28:58,277
The Germans were held up at Stalingrad.

410
00:28:58,361 --> 00:29:01,989
Britain won in November at El Alamein.

411
00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:06,285
Churchill went north to Bradford
in sprightly spirits.

412
00:29:07,245 --> 00:29:13,542
Now, we have just passed through
the month of November,

413
00:29:13,626 --> 00:29:16,712
usually a month of fogs and gloom,

414
00:29:16,796 --> 00:29:20,132
but, on the whole,
a month l've liked a good deal better

415
00:29:20,216 --> 00:29:22,634
than some other months we've seen

416
00:29:22,719 --> 00:29:26,472
during the course
of this present unpleasantness.

417
00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:29,141
- (applause)
- And so l say to you,

418
00:29:29,225 --> 00:29:35,689
let us go forward together and put
these grave matters to the proof.

419
00:29:35,774 --> 00:29:38,192
(cheering)

420
00:29:38,276 --> 00:29:41,779
(narrator) Churchill was safe
in power while the war lasted,

421
00:29:41,863 --> 00:29:45,491
but the hopes of the British people
were swinging away from him.

422
00:29:45,575 --> 00:29:49,369
Beyond victory,
what could Churchill offer them?

423
00:29:50,830 --> 00:29:55,292
♪ Roll out the barrel

424
00:29:55,376 --> 00:30:00,172
♪ We'll have a barrel of fun

425
00:30:00,256 --> 00:30:05,177
♪ Roll out the barrel

426
00:30:05,261 --> 00:30:09,264
♪ We've got the blues on the run

427
00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:13,685
(narrator) But by the middle of the war,
there weren't so many barrels.

428
00:30:13,770 --> 00:30:18,106
lf you wanted beer,
you might have to bring your own bottle.

429
00:30:18,191 --> 00:30:22,486
And many other things which people
had relied on were now in short supply.

430
00:30:22,570 --> 00:30:28,408
Apples and razors, prams and potatoes,
bread and offal were all unrationed.

431
00:30:28,535 --> 00:30:30,619
But you had to queue.

432
00:30:36,584 --> 00:30:40,838
And because they hated queuing,
people welcomed rationing.

433
00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:45,759
Soap and clothes were rationed,
as well as most essential foodstuffs.

434
00:30:45,844 --> 00:30:50,264
You knew you could get the ration
and the British system seemed fair -

435
00:30:50,348 --> 00:30:53,141
the same for everyone, rich or poor.

436
00:30:53,226 --> 00:30:56,687
Each person got
up to eight ounces of sugar a week,

437
00:30:56,771 --> 00:30:59,773
every two months a packet of dried eggs,

438
00:30:59,858 --> 00:31:04,111
eight ounces of cheese a week, eight
ounces of fats, four ounces of bacon,

439
00:31:04,195 --> 00:31:06,655
and about a pound of meat.

440
00:31:16,499 --> 00:31:20,961
(man) Are you helping to win the war
on the kitchen front?

441
00:31:22,338 --> 00:31:29,344
lf you're saving our shipping by
making the most of what we grow at home,

442
00:31:29,429 --> 00:31:36,101
if you're growing vegetables on every
bit of ground that you can get hold of,

443
00:31:36,185 --> 00:31:39,688
if you're only eating what you need

444
00:31:39,814 --> 00:31:43,901
and not what you like
and as much as you like,

445
00:31:43,985 --> 00:31:46,695
then you are helping to win the war.

446
00:31:46,779 --> 00:31:52,743
And my advice to you
is cook potatoes in their jackets,

447
00:31:52,827 --> 00:31:55,120
and grow your own onions.

448
00:31:55,204 --> 00:32:00,709
(narrator) And they did, assailed
by a barrage of films and posters.

449
00:32:00,793 --> 00:32:04,546
Affer war work, before fire watching,
between spells of training,

450
00:32:04,631 --> 00:32:07,591
townsmen toiled on their allotments.

451
00:32:07,675 --> 00:32:10,510
Britain was under blockade.

452
00:32:10,595 --> 00:32:12,804
By 1943, farmers had brought

453
00:32:12,889 --> 00:32:17,225
nearly four and a half million
extra acres under the plough,

454
00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:21,355
and allotments were chewing up
scraps of good land leff over.

455
00:32:21,481 --> 00:32:25,651
Vegetables flourished
round the Albert Memorial.

456
00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:35,827
Good, plain food was still cheap
and unrationed in factory canteens

457
00:32:35,912 --> 00:32:38,497
and in new publicly-owned
British restaurants,

458
00:32:38,581 --> 00:32:44,169
but many people complained that the
rich could still find fancier titbits.

459
00:32:44,253 --> 00:32:48,382
The black market
snaked silently through Britain.

460
00:32:48,466 --> 00:32:52,052
"Poor fella.
Now, what can l sell his mother?"

461
00:32:56,766 --> 00:33:01,979
l want to talk to you
about what is called racketeering,

462
00:33:02,063 --> 00:33:04,731
or the black market.

463
00:33:04,816 --> 00:33:07,734
lt is being stopped.

464
00:33:07,819 --> 00:33:11,738
These food cheats
are the enemies of the people.

465
00:33:11,823 --> 00:33:16,618
There must be no dirty fingers
in the people's food.

466
00:33:19,580 --> 00:33:24,167
(narrator) The ugly Squanderbug,
symbol of waste, was outlawed.

467
00:33:24,252 --> 00:33:27,004
Women were reminded
not to waste old clothes

468
00:33:27,088 --> 00:33:30,298
and not to ask for glamorous new ones.

469
00:33:36,931 --> 00:33:40,308
Every scrap
of manufactured matter counted.

470
00:33:40,977 --> 00:33:43,228
(newsreel) Fashion is rationed.

471
00:33:45,606 --> 00:33:47,691
The rot set in when silk stockings

472
00:33:47,775 --> 00:33:50,944
had to be sacrificed
in the early stages of the war.

473
00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:53,196
That was pre-Austerity.

474
00:33:53,281 --> 00:33:56,992
Did you realise the difference
between Austerity and Utility?

475
00:33:57,076 --> 00:34:01,455
Austerity, on the left, is the elder
sister of Utility, in the checked suit.

476
00:34:01,539 --> 00:34:03,081
And Austerity was allowed

477
00:34:03,166 --> 00:34:06,084
many fashionable privileges
denied to Utility.

478
00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:07,836
For instance, pleats.

479
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,797
Utility, as you know,
is confined to four,

480
00:34:10,882 --> 00:34:14,009
whereas Austerity
was lavish with pleats.

481
00:34:16,345 --> 00:34:19,931
(narrator) Strict petrol allocation
drove cars off the road,

482
00:34:20,016 --> 00:34:23,185
though some drivers ran on coal gas.

483
00:34:25,938 --> 00:34:28,607
Trains and buses were scarce now, too.

484
00:34:28,691 --> 00:34:31,151
(newsreel)
You wonder why we make a fuss

485
00:34:31,235 --> 00:34:33,070
if George decides to take a bus.

486
00:34:33,154 --> 00:34:38,033
But look again and you will see that
George ain't all that George should be.

487
00:34:38,117 --> 00:34:42,746
He's only got a step to go -
a couple of hundred yards or so.

488
00:34:42,830 --> 00:34:47,292
Whilst others, further down the queue,
have far to go and lots to do.

489
00:34:50,004 --> 00:34:55,342
When George gets on we often find
that other folk get left behind.

490
00:34:55,426 --> 00:34:59,763
He pays his fare and rides a stage,

491
00:34:59,847 --> 00:35:02,349
then off he hops...

492
00:35:02,433 --> 00:35:04,768
and see the rage.

493
00:35:04,852 --> 00:35:08,063
And seeing this gives George a jog.

494
00:35:08,147 --> 00:35:12,067
(George)
Perhaps I'm just a transport hog.

495
00:35:12,151 --> 00:35:16,780
Hello, Forces. Once again, this is
Joan Griffiths saying thank you for...

496
00:35:16,864 --> 00:35:19,616
(narrator) The BBC,
official voice of Britain,

497
00:35:19,742 --> 00:35:23,787
was more high-minded than ever,
but the public didn't mind.

498
00:35:23,871 --> 00:35:26,665
The Brains Trust,
a weekly intellectual forum,

499
00:35:26,791 --> 00:35:29,376
was one of radio's
most popular programmes,

500
00:35:29,460 --> 00:35:34,047
and the voice of the novelist
JB Priestley made him a major star.

501
00:35:34,132 --> 00:35:39,427
The British were absolutely
at their best in the Second World War.

502
00:35:39,512 --> 00:35:45,600
They were never as good,
certainly in my lifetime before it.

503
00:35:45,685 --> 00:35:50,438
And, l'm sorry to say, that they've
never been quite as good affer it.

504
00:35:51,482 --> 00:35:53,900
Because a large number of people

505
00:35:53,985 --> 00:35:59,114
were living more intensely
than they'd ever done before,

506
00:35:59,198 --> 00:36:05,495
a large number of people equally
felt they needed some of the arts.

507
00:36:09,333 --> 00:36:13,587
(narrator) Dame Myra Hess
played in the National Gallery.

508
00:36:17,633 --> 00:36:22,345
(Priestley) There was a greater demand,
l think, for good books,

509
00:36:22,430 --> 00:36:27,184
good plays, music,
the sight of some good pictures,

510
00:36:27,268 --> 00:36:30,478
than l'd ever known before
in this country.

511
00:36:43,075 --> 00:36:45,619
(narrator)
Still more people loved Hi, Gang!

512
00:36:45,703 --> 00:36:47,454
and "That Man", Tommy Handley.

513
00:36:47,538 --> 00:36:50,582
- (man) ITMA!
- (fanfare)

514
00:36:54,670 --> 00:36:58,298
(chorus) ♪ It's that man again,
yes, that man again

515
00:36:58,382 --> 00:37:00,550
Can l do you now, sir?

516
00:37:00,635 --> 00:37:03,053
(applause)

517
00:37:10,394 --> 00:37:15,273
Well, well, if it isn't Canteen Clara,
the rissole-smacking bomber.

518
00:37:15,358 --> 00:37:18,985
l say, you look a bit tousled.
Have you flown off the handle?

519
00:37:19,070 --> 00:37:22,948
No, sir. l've been fire watching
for the first time.

520
00:37:23,032 --> 00:37:25,575
(laughter)

521
00:37:25,660 --> 00:37:28,578
- Did you have a chaperone?
- Oh, yes, sir.

522
00:37:28,663 --> 00:37:31,873
And a very nice polite chap he was, too.

523
00:37:31,958 --> 00:37:34,960
Always said "pardon"
before he took his boots off.

524
00:37:35,044 --> 00:37:37,170
(laughter)

525
00:37:39,382 --> 00:37:43,343
l'd hate to hear what he said
before he took his socks off.

526
00:37:44,303 --> 00:37:47,347
(narrator) And Gracie Fields was back.

527
00:37:47,431 --> 00:37:49,474
♪ l'm the girl that makes the thing

528
00:37:49,558 --> 00:37:51,768
♪ That drills the hole
that holds the spring

529
00:37:51,852 --> 00:37:56,481
♪ That drives the rod that turns
the knob that works the thingamabob

530
00:37:56,565 --> 00:38:00,652
♪ l'm the girl that makes the thing
that holds the oil that oils the ring

531
00:38:00,736 --> 00:38:04,656
♪ That takes the shank that moves
the crank that works the thingamabob

532
00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:09,160
♪ lt's a ticklish sort of job
making a thing for a thingamabob

533
00:38:09,245 --> 00:38:12,914
♪ Especially when you don't know
what it's for

534
00:38:12,999 --> 00:38:14,624
And l don't know!

535
00:38:14,709 --> 00:38:17,210
♪ But l'm the girl that makes the thing

536
00:38:17,295 --> 00:38:19,296
♪ That drills the hole
that holds the spring

537
00:38:19,380 --> 00:38:23,508
♪ That makes the thingamabob
that makes the engines roar

538
00:38:23,592 --> 00:38:28,221
♪ And l'm the girl that makes the thing
that holds the oil that oils the ring

539
00:38:28,306 --> 00:38:31,725
♪ That makes the thingamabob
that's going to win the war

540
00:38:32,852 --> 00:38:34,311
'Tis true!

541
00:38:38,983 --> 00:38:42,235
(narrator) Aircraff production
had trebled in two years.

542
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,070
ln the next two, it doubled again.

543
00:38:44,155 --> 00:38:47,157
Britain's war economy
was much more widely based

544
00:38:47,241 --> 00:38:49,951
and thoroughly organised than Germany's.

545
00:38:50,036 --> 00:38:53,580
But the cost of such
concentrated effort was high.

546
00:38:53,664 --> 00:38:56,374
Familiar customs in industry
were swept aside.

547
00:38:56,459 --> 00:39:01,504
Workers put in massive overtime which
stretched mind and body to the limit.

548
00:39:01,630 --> 00:39:05,508
Then, sometimes, their patience snapped.

549
00:39:06,385 --> 00:39:11,139
This is Betteshanger, Kent,
scene of a famous dispute in 1942.

550
00:39:11,223 --> 00:39:15,727
lndustry cried out for coal,
but output fell and went on falling.

551
00:39:15,811 --> 00:39:19,773
Many miners had joined up
or had found better-paid work.

552
00:39:19,857 --> 00:39:24,277
Older men worked longer hours
and had to guard the mine, as well.

553
00:39:24,362 --> 00:39:28,740
But when they could stand
these conditions no more, they struck.

554
00:39:28,824 --> 00:39:35,038
(man) We all marched down into Deal
and then onto the Canterbury Road.

555
00:39:35,122 --> 00:39:40,752
There were several local residents
and particularly some of the troops,

556
00:39:40,836 --> 00:39:44,589
they were jeering and sneering at us.

557
00:39:44,673 --> 00:39:48,009
But little did they know at the time

558
00:39:48,094 --> 00:39:52,305
that we were manning this pit
24 hours a day,

559
00:39:52,390 --> 00:39:55,266
with the Home Guard troops, ourselves,

560
00:39:55,351 --> 00:40:00,438
and many of us worked and stopped
at the pit here 24 hours a day.

561
00:40:00,523 --> 00:40:03,858
(narrator) The miners knew
strikes were forbidden by Bevin

562
00:40:03,943 --> 00:40:07,362
by a wartime regulation, order 1305.

563
00:40:09,198 --> 00:40:11,408
But faced
with a solid body of 1 ,000 men,

564
00:40:11,492 --> 00:40:14,285
you couldn't jail them all
or even collect fines,

565
00:40:14,370 --> 00:40:17,122
and Bevin and Churchill knew it.

566
00:40:19,583 --> 00:40:22,794
(Roberts) l don't think Churchill
wanted us to go to prison.

567
00:40:22,878 --> 00:40:25,672
He wanted us to stay here
and guard his property.

568
00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:29,926
Because it was his property, affer all.
lt wasn't ours.

569
00:40:30,970 --> 00:40:33,054
(narrator) The government gave in.

570
00:40:33,139 --> 00:40:38,309
Desperate for labour, late in 1943,
Bevin called up boys.

571
00:40:38,436 --> 00:40:41,438
Not for the forces, for the mines.

572
00:40:41,522 --> 00:40:43,481
You'll be here four weeks.

573
00:40:43,566 --> 00:40:47,360
ls there any district you'd like to go
to at the end of your training?

574
00:40:47,486 --> 00:40:52,157
- Bolsover, Derby.
- Pass down to the billeting section.

575
00:40:53,117 --> 00:40:56,578
- Good old steel toecaps.
- Thank you.

576
00:40:56,704 --> 00:41:00,039
- What size is your hat?
- Seven and a quarter, please.

577
00:41:00,124 --> 00:41:03,585
(narrator) One new national serViceman
in ten became a Bevin Boy.

578
00:41:03,669 --> 00:41:06,504
You couldn't escape,
whoever your dad was.

579
00:41:06,589 --> 00:41:08,506
You're a public schoolboy.

580
00:41:08,591 --> 00:41:11,634
lt'll be a change for you
going in the mine, won't it?

581
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,138
Yes, but it's a necessity
that someone's got to do the job,

582
00:41:15,222 --> 00:41:20,351
so l think l'm doing my part in...
in helping.

583
00:41:21,729 --> 00:41:24,230
l was expecting to go into the army.

584
00:41:24,315 --> 00:41:28,026
l was very shocked when l heard
on the news on Christmas Day

585
00:41:28,110 --> 00:41:30,653
that l was to be
directed into the mines.

586
00:41:30,738 --> 00:41:32,280
lt was a ballot, actually,

587
00:41:32,406 --> 00:41:35,450
and they drew out numbers
ending in nought or nine.

588
00:41:35,534 --> 00:41:40,747
My registration number ended in nought,
so there was no ducking away from that.

589
00:41:40,831 --> 00:41:43,791
l had to go in the mines
regardless of anything.

590
00:41:43,876 --> 00:41:46,794
(narrator) His parents hoped
he'd be an army officer.

591
00:41:46,879 --> 00:41:48,296
They were flabbergasted.

592
00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:50,882
lf somebody'd said,
"You'll go into the mines",

593
00:41:50,966 --> 00:41:52,926
l'd have thought they were joking.

594
00:41:55,054 --> 00:41:56,387
(narrator) But lads of 17

595
00:41:56,472 --> 00:41:59,474
without a mining background
couldn't solve the problem.

596
00:41:59,558 --> 00:42:02,769
Output went on falling and falling.

597
00:42:02,895 --> 00:42:05,480
And in 1944,
in Yorkshire and South Wales,

598
00:42:05,564 --> 00:42:09,817
over 200,000 miners
came out on unofficial strike.

599
00:42:10,903 --> 00:42:16,866
The men have worked continuously
for a period of nearly five years,

600
00:42:16,951 --> 00:42:19,494
under war conditions,

601
00:42:19,578 --> 00:42:22,497
suffering from a deep sense of grievance

602
00:42:22,581 --> 00:42:26,251
because they have not been rewarded
by the state equally

603
00:42:26,335 --> 00:42:30,129
with ex-mine workers
employed in government factories.

604
00:42:34,301 --> 00:42:37,554
(narrator) ln bustling Tyneside
shipyards, as in mines,

605
00:42:37,638 --> 00:42:42,183
men who remembered
mass unemployment feared the peace.

606
00:42:42,268 --> 00:42:48,356
Their doubts and wishes spoke out even
in government-made documentary films.

607
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:51,317
(man) Tyneside's busy enough today.

608
00:42:51,402 --> 00:42:55,572
Old 'uns and young 'uns
hard at work making good ships.

609
00:42:55,656 --> 00:43:01,369
But just remember what the yards
looked like five years ago.

610
00:43:01,453 --> 00:43:04,872
ldle, empty,

611
00:43:04,957 --> 00:43:07,208
some of them derelict,

612
00:43:07,293 --> 00:43:12,255
and the skilled men that worked in them
scattered and forgotten.

613
00:43:12,339 --> 00:43:17,427
Will it be the same again
five years from now?

614
00:43:18,804 --> 00:43:21,097
Other films echoed the same question,

615
00:43:21,181 --> 00:43:25,643
like this early effort by the Boulting
brothers, starring Bernard Miles.

616
00:43:25,728 --> 00:43:30,565
l reckon Hitler's made a lot of us
change our minds a bit lately.

617
00:43:30,649 --> 00:43:32,525
We made a fine big war effort,

618
00:43:32,610 --> 00:43:36,070
but when it's all over, we've
got to make a fine big peace effort.

619
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:41,242
There's no two ways about it.
We can't go back now we've made a start.

620
00:43:41,327 --> 00:43:44,621
Cor, look at that Dunkirk.

621
00:43:44,747 --> 00:43:46,998
Weren't no unemployed there.

622
00:43:47,082 --> 00:43:50,293
Every man had a job to do
and he done it.

623
00:43:50,377 --> 00:43:55,381
That's what we've got to see
they have in peacetime - a job.

624
00:43:55,466 --> 00:43:59,052
And there'll be work enough, too,
when this lot's over -

625
00:43:59,136 --> 00:44:04,057
building up something new
and better than what's been destroyed.

626
00:44:04,141 --> 00:44:09,312
There mustn't be no more chaps
hanging around for work what don't come.

627
00:44:09,396 --> 00:44:11,814
No more slums, neither.

628
00:44:11,899 --> 00:44:14,692
No more dirty, filthy backstreets

629
00:44:14,777 --> 00:44:19,989
and no more half-starVed kids
with no room to play in.

630
00:44:20,074 --> 00:44:25,244
We can't go back to the old way
of living. Leastways, not all of it.

631
00:44:25,913 --> 00:44:28,581
That's gone forever.

632
00:44:28,666 --> 00:44:33,336
And the sooner we all make up our minds
about that, the better.

633
00:44:33,420 --> 00:44:36,130
We've gotta all pull together.

634
00:44:36,882 --> 00:44:40,635
There was a great community spirit
during the war.

635
00:44:40,761 --> 00:44:44,013
lt is the nearest thing that l've seen,
in my lifetime,

636
00:44:44,098 --> 00:44:46,974
to the operation
of a kind of socialist state,

637
00:44:47,059 --> 00:44:50,478
that is of a democratic
socialist state of citizens

638
00:44:50,562 --> 00:44:54,107
believing they could influence
by their actions,

639
00:44:54,191 --> 00:44:56,734
speedily, what was going to be done,

640
00:44:56,819 --> 00:45:00,405
and that the world could be changed
by the way they operated.

641
00:45:00,489 --> 00:45:03,991
They saw that the world was changed
by their actions in the war

642
00:45:04,118 --> 00:45:08,371
and thought that could be translated
into political action as well.

643
00:45:08,455 --> 00:45:13,334
lt was extremely exciting,
but some of the political leaders,

644
00:45:13,419 --> 00:45:16,629
because they were so involved
in their own pursuits,

645
00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:19,132
didn't appreciate what was happening.

646
00:45:19,216 --> 00:45:22,927
(narrator) And so,
the people's hopes for a better peace

647
00:45:23,011 --> 00:45:25,972
fixed themselves
on Sir William Beveridge,

648
00:45:26,056 --> 00:45:28,891
who'd been commissioned
by the government

649
00:45:28,976 --> 00:45:32,562
to draw up plans for a welfare state.

650
00:45:32,646 --> 00:45:37,817
When his report was published in 1942,
it was a best seller.

651
00:45:37,901 --> 00:45:40,987
The report proposes, first,

652
00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:45,658
an all-in scheme of social insurance,

653
00:45:45,743 --> 00:45:49,787
providing for all citizens
and their families

654
00:45:49,913 --> 00:45:54,333
all the cash benefits
needed for security,

655
00:45:54,418 --> 00:45:58,629
in return for
a single weekly contribution

656
00:45:58,714 --> 00:46:02,175
by one insurance stamp.

657
00:46:03,093 --> 00:46:10,433
lt preserVes the maximum of individual
freedom and responsibility

658
00:46:10,517 --> 00:46:14,812
that is consistent
with the abolition of want.

659
00:46:14,897 --> 00:46:19,817
(narrator) The government
first blew hot, then cold, very cold.

660
00:46:19,902 --> 00:46:22,028
Churchill wouldn't act.

661
00:46:22,112 --> 00:46:25,114
Churchill got very worried
and his two chancellors,

662
00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:29,577
Sir Kingsley Wood and Anderson,
were equally critical.

663
00:46:29,703 --> 00:46:33,122
That's why the Beveridge plan
was delayed affer my bill.

664
00:46:33,207 --> 00:46:35,333
That's why education came first.

665
00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:40,171
(narrator) A major reform of education
would tread on fewer big toes.

666
00:46:40,255 --> 00:46:42,423
lt had other uses, too.

667
00:46:42,508 --> 00:46:46,594
(Butler) lt wasn't very controversial.
lt was very long.

668
00:46:46,678 --> 00:46:49,680
Churchill realised
here was a wonderful way

669
00:46:49,765 --> 00:46:52,225
of exercising the troops, you see?

670
00:46:52,309 --> 00:46:56,187
(narrator) Churchill was,
first and foremost, a war leader.

671
00:46:56,271 --> 00:46:58,648
He kept the brakes on reconstruction.

672
00:46:58,732 --> 00:47:01,651
(Butler)
Churchill didn't take much interest.

673
00:47:01,735 --> 00:47:06,072
He wanted to know whether we were
going to go in for nationalisation.

674
00:47:06,156 --> 00:47:11,410
We had a proposal by Herbert Morrison
to nationalise the electricity industry,

675
00:47:11,495 --> 00:47:14,288
and that's where
the coalition government stopped.

676
00:47:14,414 --> 00:47:16,541
We couldn't get agreement on that.

677
00:47:16,625 --> 00:47:18,876
(narrator) A new party, Common Wealth,

678
00:47:18,961 --> 00:47:22,088
called for Beveridge now,
and won two by-elections.

679
00:47:22,172 --> 00:47:25,675
Other independents took up the cry.

680
00:47:25,759 --> 00:47:28,052
The Beveridge bandwagon rolled on.

681
00:47:28,136 --> 00:47:31,013
Early in 1944,
West Derbyshire had its say.

682
00:47:31,098 --> 00:47:33,474
One candidate was wholly independent.

683
00:47:33,559 --> 00:47:36,394
lndeed, he had no programme at all.

684
00:47:36,979 --> 00:47:39,522
l have no animosity...

685
00:47:39,606 --> 00:47:42,191
to the other two candidates.

686
00:47:43,861 --> 00:47:50,449
lf l am not elected, l am the only one
that has anything to lose.

687
00:47:51,910 --> 00:47:55,246
l am very proud...

688
00:47:55,330 --> 00:47:58,040
that what l consider

689
00:47:58,125 --> 00:48:02,587
to be the foundation stone
of true democracy

690
00:48:02,671 --> 00:48:08,092
has been well and truly laid
in the village of Kniveton,

691
00:48:08,176 --> 00:48:11,178
Derbyshire, England.

692
00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:17,602
(narrator) Goodall then fled
to his father's cottage.

693
00:48:17,686 --> 00:48:21,564
The real fight was between
an independent socialist, Charlie White,

694
00:48:21,690 --> 00:48:24,358
who had Common Wealth support,

695
00:48:24,443 --> 00:48:27,653
and the youthful ConserVative
Lord Hartington,

696
00:48:27,779 --> 00:48:30,323
who had official Labour backing.

697
00:48:31,742 --> 00:48:35,077
Hartington's family
had always found a seat here,

698
00:48:35,162 --> 00:48:38,205
and to reject him
would be most untraditional.

699
00:48:44,087 --> 00:48:46,547
But White won by a landslide.

700
00:48:46,632 --> 00:48:49,884
ConserVatives were not pleased.

701
00:48:49,968 --> 00:48:52,178
Democracy, however, was safe enough

702
00:48:52,304 --> 00:48:55,139
for the Fascist leader, Mosley,
to be released.

703
00:48:55,265 --> 00:48:57,683
He had been interned since 1940.

704
00:48:59,436 --> 00:49:04,273
The government said that he was ill,
but very few people believed it.

705
00:49:04,399 --> 00:49:08,527
This caused the greatest public uproar
of the war years.

706
00:49:18,497 --> 00:49:21,165
Fear and hatred
had changed their targets.

707
00:49:21,249 --> 00:49:24,085
Released aliens
serVed in the Pioneer Corps.

708
00:49:24,169 --> 00:49:26,963
On newsreels,
they now appeared as lovable allies.

709
00:49:27,047 --> 00:49:29,507
(man) This is Corporal Gruker.

710
00:49:29,591 --> 00:49:32,093
His scars and his glass eye

711
00:49:32,177 --> 00:49:34,470
are the legacy
of being kicked by a horse

712
00:49:34,554 --> 00:49:37,473
when he was in a crack
Austrian cavalry regiment.

713
00:49:37,557 --> 00:49:41,769
- The Dragoons, wasn't it, Gruker?
- Yes, sir. l was kicked twice.

714
00:49:41,853 --> 00:49:46,983
Once by the horse and once
by Shickelgruber. l prefer the horse.

715
00:49:47,776 --> 00:49:50,987
(narrator) Alien troops
were welcomed now in Britain

716
00:49:51,071 --> 00:49:55,408
where they gathered to prepare
for the D-day invasion.

717
00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:58,327
The Free Poles
conquered many Scottish hearts.

718
00:50:01,289 --> 00:50:04,041
And the Gls were everywhere.

719
00:50:05,794 --> 00:50:09,755
(all chant) One! Two! Three! Four!

720
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,675
(narrator)
They were well-equipped, well-paid,

721
00:50:12,759 --> 00:50:16,846
and gave the girls fine new things
like nylons and the jitterbug.

722
00:50:22,978 --> 00:50:27,440
Churchill could now inspect an army
which knew that it would win.

723
00:50:28,692 --> 00:50:33,195
The hour of our greatest effort
and action is approaching.

724
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:38,409
We march with valiant allies
who count on us as we count on them.

725
00:50:38,493 --> 00:50:44,665
The only homeward road for all of us
lies through the arch of victory.

726
00:50:47,627 --> 00:50:50,838
(narrator) At last, the day came.

727
00:50:50,922 --> 00:50:53,007
And it was sweet.

728
00:50:56,970 --> 00:51:00,473
Wally Hammond's cover drive
delighted crowds

729
00:51:00,557 --> 00:51:04,101
who basked serenely
in the fine summer weather.

730
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:18,949
Britain seemed close
to the winning post.

731
00:51:19,034 --> 00:51:21,660
Wasn't it all over, bar the killing?

732
00:51:21,745 --> 00:51:25,247
(newsreel) Thanks to the very fine
weather in the Straits of Dover,

733
00:51:25,332 --> 00:51:30,336
all holiday crowds had a good time,
except those rash enough to travel.

734
00:51:30,420 --> 00:51:33,839
Is the favourite winning?
Ah, who cares anyway?

735
00:51:45,685 --> 00:51:47,436
(droning)

736
00:52:01,701 --> 00:52:04,161
(narrator) The V-1.

737
00:52:13,380 --> 00:52:15,548
A plane with no pilot.

738
00:52:18,426 --> 00:52:20,010
(droning ceases)

739
00:52:29,604 --> 00:52:31,689
(explosion)

740
00:52:33,316 --> 00:52:35,401
A new kind of weapon.

741
00:52:48,206 --> 00:52:50,749
A new kind of war.

742
00:53:14,149 --> 00:53:16,400
lt was time to hide again.

743
00:53:18,695 --> 00:53:20,779
(droning)